Truly Dreadful Film

recommended

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

THE GOOD DIE YOUNG is a fine British crime film noir of the 1950s with an impressive British/American cast and an intriguing storyline. The narrative is carefully structured, beginning with an exciting interlude before telling four separate character stories in flashback. Eventually the viewer catches up with the present for a gripping climax.The first thing you notice about this film is the exemplary cast. Laurence Harvey is perfectly cast as the despicable cad who gathers together a team of desperate men to pull of a post office robbery. Richard Basehart is the imported American player struggling to wrest control of his youthful wife Joan Collins from his sinister mother-in-law (Freda Jackson, who with this and THE BRIDES OF Dracula had a fine role in domineering older women). John Ireland and Gloria Grahame have a convincingly volatile relationship.Best of the bunch is a thoroughly sympathetic Stanley Baker playing a down-on-his-luck boxer going through some very tough times. The underrated Baker is a delight in the part and steals his scenes, even from Harvey. The likes of Robert Morley and Lee Patterson provide solid support. The lengthy flashback scenes are engaging pieces of character work, true to life and authentic, and they serve as a good set-up for the electrifying climax where things don't go according to plan. The last twenty minutes of this film are impressively downbeat and nail-biting to boot. Great stuff.

The entire cast manage to give their worst-ever performances in this slow and boring, dated old film. Lewis Gilbert was a competent director who never reached the front rank, unsurprisingly judging from this effort. Richard Basehart and John Ireland always were mediocre actors at best but the normally good Gloria Grahame is just awful. Laurence Harvey, one of the most wooden actors imaginable, badly overplays his part. It's truly amazing that he got so many major roles in British and American films. The only actor who even tries to give a decent performance is the forgotten Welsh actor Stanley Baker. The sets look like they're made from paper mache. Worth watching only for the final chase at the end, or as a look back on life in England in the early 1950s.

Four men are in a car. They are all from different walks of life and a short time ago none of them were nothing more than drinking buddies – now they are on their way somewhere with a box full of guns. A washed up boxer, a man trying to win his wife back from a controlling mother, an RAF officer with a cheating wife and a "gentleman" with no means of his own. Only a few weeks ago, "gentleman" Miles finds himself out of luck with his women and his money pit in-laws and, needing money so, when he meets the other three men, he sees a chance to take advance of their various needs.For a while back in the fifties, British cinema seemed to have enough grit and clout to it to almost be able to compete with the American market in regards crime thrillers (if not quite noirs); The Good Die Young is one of those that has a good try and is a pretty enjoyable piece even if it lacks the grit and tension of similar American products. The film opens with an intriguing set up but then jumps back to establish the story and characters and it is here where it becomes weak. The back stories are rather melodramatic and it doesn't fit well with what was meant to be a bit tougher and gripping; they are interesting enough to do the job but I must admit to feeling that they were a bit dragged out and unnecessarily long. However, if you make it through this main body of the film you'll get to an ending that is just what the film should have been throughout. I won't spoil it but it is enjoyably brutal, downbeat and gripping – "about time" was my thought when I realised that the film had gotten going.The cast do their best with the melodrama but the material isn't there for them and they are mixed. Harvey and Baker stand out with strong performances; Basehart is good but Ireland feels like he is just making up the numbers. Naturally Collins stands out today, and she is quite good but the melodrama is made better by Grahame, Ray and, to a lesser extent, Leighton. Of course the men are all much better in the proper crime side of the film and this is partly due to better and more atmospheric direction from writer/director Gilbert, who also injects the pace when it is required.Overall this is an average film mainly because the back story takes up far too much of the film, is too melodramatic and doesn't sit well with the tough tension promised in the first scene and delivered at the end. With the main trunk being rather plodding, the ending does feel a lot better mainly because you're grateful that the film has gotten going. Could have been great but is merely reasonably good; worth seeing for genre and period fans but will not impress a wider audience.

Coming to this with neutral expectations, and fresh from seeing Harvey in 'Room at the Top' for the umpteenth time, I was quite surprised to find it watchable, with lots of interesting facets and a cast who complement each other well. Baker (an actor whose work seems to be undergoing some appraisal at film festivals lately) gives some dignity to the down-on-his-luck prizefighter; Harvey convincingly plays an upper-class slimeball alternatively charming and terrorising his wife (interesting played by Margaret Leighton, who would become Mrs Harvey in real life), sparring with the father who despises him, and poisoning his 'friends' lives like a devious snake. Ireland, as the bitter GI with a film star wife flaunting her infidelities each time he comes home from leave, is effective, while Basehart, with a weedy wife and an overbearing mother-in-law, puts across his frustations nicely. So much for characterisation. The film is mainly taken up with a series of flashbacks, showing how the four men find themselves in the situation we see them in at the start. Once it moves back into the present, it feels rushed and the final moralistic voiceover almost kills it. Amongst the other players, Joan Collins as Basehart's wife doesn't do much besides pout and look pretty, while Gloria Grahame as the film actress manages to be simply irritating. All things considered, the film isn't a total success but has enough going on to keep you there with it.